Stories - Your favorite stories re pros / legends

[Max_Rep]

Max do you remember Ron Gibson and does anyone have any pics of him.  Remember his forearms and how vascular he was.

Only... when you have a long story like that, it's a lot easier to read if you break it up into several paragraphs.

I only found one pic or Ron from when he was in College. He was a lot better than this when we knew him.

[knny187]

Good to see you back, Only. Keep your milkshakes on the kitchen sink from now on out.

I can keep this topic going with photos and stories for a couple of more months (at least) if I can find the 70's 35 mm scrapbook in one of the family attics.

Other than finding them, I also gotta find out how to post 35 mm slides to this site.

I consider myself to be an expert posting photos now. It took a while but I finally learned that I gotta reduce them to 300 pixels in width to get them to a small enough size where they can transfer swiftly and then save them in low quality cause when I send them the program in GetBig somehow posts them on site much larger.

Hard to explain, but I think you gotthe idea.

SO now I gotta learn how to post slides.

Thanks for all your comments on my photos and the input on my half assed remarks.

you should be able to use 500 pixels

[stuntmovie]

Isn't lesser besser?

Been trying to compete against OnlyMe here and come up with some new stroies to keep you all interested (or pissed off) until I can find those old slides I mentioned earlier. (The ones when even Tom Platz had no legs to speak of or a casual hint that they were forthcoming).

Maybe this next story will keep some interest going in the meantime.

BODYBUILDING AS A KID

Back in them old days, bodybuilding was "squeeky clean" and not a "sport" at all. It was something that most people never even heard of. It was something that some good looken kid named Steve over on the other side of the Bay was doing cause he was so dam unreal in the first place. He was the kid who nevr had a cold or a cavity.

There was no such thing as "muscle hustle", or at least we never thought of such a thing or had any idea that it ever existed.

It was a novelty of sorts that only a few participated in. There was Walt Baptiste and Jack LaLanne and Clancy Ross, and Steve of course but they got almost no publicity unless some kid at school started bragging about some schoolmate who was strong as shit and that kid's dad happened to be a newspaper reporter looking for a local story.

That's exactly what happened in the case of a kid named Steve Reeves whose mom was interviewed in the local newspaper "Sunday Suppliment". Steve was one of these kids in high school who stood out among the rest. Not mentally, but definitely physically.

I recall going to a place called Rio Nido on the Russian River for my summer vacations and kids from all over the Bay Area would come together for lazy days on the beach and dinner with the family at 6 and a massive gathering of Bay Area kids coming together at the dance hall to do what kids tha age love to do best...  dance and make love and talk about friends who were'nt fortunate to be there that particular weekend due to work committments back home in that foggy city or points across the Bay.

Mot everyone in the Bay Area had heard of Steve one way or another and it was a big thing whenever he and his buds showed up at the River.

Back then the worst thing that could happen to a bodybuilder was the mysterious shirt disappearance. A guy with a great build would hit the beach and dive into the river and come back to his spot only to find that his shirt was missing.

This was an activity most of the girls would pursue or sometimes the firend of the missing shirt person and it happened frequently.

SO unless that person packed anothr, he was shirtless for the rest of his Russian River visit.

Needless to say, this happened to Steve one sunny afternoon so he showed up that evening outside the danceing place with out a shirt and feeling a bit undressed no matter how great he looked in a shirtless state.

He was there simply to say goodbye to some new friends he had made that weekend before heading back home 70 miles away.

And that was the nite he had a fight or was side swiped by some obnoxious ass.

My folks had a summer cabin a few yards away so I got the word that there was a fight going on outside the dancehall almost as soon as it started.

"Someone is beating on Reeves!"

I was there within five minutes and it was all over. No blood, no crowd, no nothing. It was all over. The duty cops had done their job and it was kaput.

And that was about the worst thing that happened in the "bodybuilding community" that I can recall back then. Nothing really worth writing about unless you need it to compare to somethng else.

Those were the days when bodybuilding contests were held in local YMCA's promoted by guys such as Bill Stathis (a police office in San Frasncisco) with special guests like Doc Northrup and an audiance of maybe 35 people. $2 at the door got you in.

And you had a grand old time compareing lifts and talking story.

Not much to it then, but them were the good old days.

More to followw.......

[stuntmovie]

There wern't too many noticeable bodybuilders in the city back then, but we were hearing lots about Muscle Beach which was a place in LA about 420 miles to the south of us.

I can recall Bay Area guys such as Mel Knoll who traveled south on some occasions to shoot shirtless photos with a bow and arrow. I was amazed that he got to fly to Los Angeles and get paid for doing that.

I remember Curt Freeman who was probably the best built teenager (outside of Reeves of course) in the Bay Area. He eventually became a pro wrestler.

And the gyms in the city were all YMCS's except for Jack Lalanne's place on the fifth floor of some old building in the run down section of Market Street and Walt Baptiste's which was more of a Yoga palace than a hard core gym.

And in the East Bay there was Ed Yarick's. That'd where Reeves' did his serious training from my recollection. I looked for it once and found it but never did get inside.

And I do recall seeing a front cover shot of a very young Frank Zane on some pocketbook size magazine called Young Physique or something like that. I even discussed that with Frank one time many years ago.

Back then bodybuilding publicity was on the edge of something and it wasn't something that you'd "take home to mother".

And about this time we took a trip to Los Angeles and that's when I met Doug Strohl. (See earlier story). And Muscle House and Pudgie Stockton and bodybuilding history as we know it slowly started.

ANd Muscle Beach was packing them in on the weekends. People flocked to the beach to see the handstand guys and the guys with muscles.

Some thought it was a freak show even way back then. Others viewed it as a goal they themselves would like to achieve, but had a life to live that did not allow it

But those who always loved a circus made it a part of their daily lifetime. They created a lifestyle that many would soon follow.

And then a catastrophe!

Someone got raped and the finger pointed to one of the Muscle Beach guys. And the City Fathers raised hell and closed it down.

Muscle Beach was closed for good!

And an enterprising young man by the name of Joe Gold filled the void and made equipment that would make muscles grow.

And Gold's Gym became a reality. For $35 a year you could grow muscles to you heart's content. A cheap price to pay if you were willing to pay the price.

Things were so muchy simpler then.

More follows ......

[stuntmovie]

Maybe it was the lull before the storm!

Someplace back east little clouds were gathering.

Joe and Ben Weider had a publishing business.

Ben Louri was selling something and had a magazine. (Did I spell that right?)

And Bob Hoffman was promoting his own brand of weights and weightlifting and bodybuilding on the side.

And Mabel and Perry had a little magazine and chose not to fight with anyone.

SO there were four entities on the road to success but had no idea where that road would  take them.

Pioneers of the iron game.

And each (excluding Mabel and Perry) contended that he alone would lead the way and castegate the others if the others surged ahead.

The battle had begun, but there was no one there to witness it except those few who had an interest in the final outcome.

And I was interested in that outcome! Sitting on the sidelines with a great view of the eventualities.

Some of which I don't recall too well!

more follows ....

[Tamas]

Kevin,

The story of you going to Hollywood for the first time was great!  Thanks for sharing!

A real short walk and there was Muscle Beach! WOW! Muscle Beach! There was the Purser and there was the pier and this was one hell of a mighty big beach! I'd seen it all in so many magazine pictures, I felt like I had been there many times before.

But it was completely empty and the morning sky was still a fog bound white.

But, what the hell! I'll check it out anyway.

It wasn't much really. Just a small, wooden fenced enclosure with partially rusty equipment inside and some kind of wooden stand off to one end.  All there, all alone on this huge sandy beach with no one on it.

The sounds of the Merry Go Round brightened up the place a bit but not enough to make it too appealing.

And then someone came down that same hill that I had just taken a minute before. A huge guy and definitely a bodybuilder.

Must be coming for an early morning workout.

And to make a long story short .......... it was Doug Strohl.

I got brave enuff to have a brief conversation but I had friends waiting back at the hotel so it was a very bried howdy-doo.

I never did see a photo taken of Doug in the great condition he was in that day. Or maybe my memory gave him more credit than he actually deserved.

But Doug was the first bodybuilder I ever met at Muscle Beach and I've carried that memory to this very day and once in a while Jeff Everson will write "Whatever happened to Doug Strohl?" cause that is what I always ask him whenever we get together.

......

I had visited Muscle Beach early one morning and had met Doug Strohl.

Here's a great shot of Doug Strohl to bring back some more memories, courtesy of Gene Mozée :



Everything fits so well together!  His legs are excellent!  Check out the calves!

Does the background ring a bell?

Tamas.

[Tamas]

Kevin,

Ben Louri was selling something and had a magazine. (Did I spell that right?)

I believe you meant Dan Lurie and his Muscle Training Illustrated magazine.

Tamas.

[stuntmovie]

Tamas, thanks for the Doug Strohl photo (courtesy of Gene Mozee) and the MTI info too.

Yes, the background is definitely familiar and here is a photo of took of it last month (April 2005) from just about the same spot where Strohl's picture was taken about 50 years earlier.

That building is the Casa Del Mar and there was a private beach club attached to it in the early days. You can see part of it (fenced) on the sand. Apparently a law was passed a while back prohibiting any structures on the beach, so it was removed. If I recall correctly, they had a lot of paddle ball courts in that location and lounging areas to relax in and catch the sun.

There were a couple of those clubs immediately north of the Santa Monica Pier too.

Here is the Casa Del Mar. I tried to go inside and get the building's history but no one was immediately available and we were rushed to get back to the valley, so I'll have to check that out the next time I make a SM visit.

[619Rules]

That Casa Del Mar looks cool...is that a hotel today? Looks big from the outside, and the pic with Doug Strohl in it looks like it has kept the same look the entire 50 years.......this is across from Muscle Beach?

[stuntmovie]

Rules, the Casa Del Mar has quite a history behind it. I believe it was a hotel and beach club in the early days and then went through some deteriorizaton before a drug rehab outfit bought or rented it. Today it appears to be a fancy hotel/apartment complex. As I said earlier, I'm interested in this building's history and plan to check it out on my next visit unless someone here can provide those details.

The Casa Del Mar is located about 120 yards south of the old Muscle Beach.

Just north a bit from the Casa Del Mar is the remodeled Sea Breeze. If you were there a long time back, the Sea Breeze is the building that used to have the big wall between the broadwalk and the beach. It was a great spot to catch the winter sun because that sea-wall served as protection from the winter breezes.

It appears that the Sea Breeze (I don't think that was its name in the early days) today is an ultra fancy apartment complex. But this is another thing I want to check on during my next visit.

The Sea Breeze's next door neighbor on the southern side of the building is now Shutters, an ultra expensive hotel on the beach. The beachside restaurant always seems crowded.

Pictures poster below. You can see the Casa Del Mar south Shutters in that second pic.

In my next post, I'll include a photo of the only residence remaining that was almost directly across from the the Muscle Beach weight pit.

[stuntmovie]

To the best of my recollection, this is the last remaining residence directly opposite the old Muscle Beach weight pit. It's been remodeled quite extensively.



Back in the 70's there were more single family homes in the area looking straight out onto the beach. We had the chance to buy one for rought\ly $32,000 to $34,000. I don't know if it ever sold and it must have been torn down because it is no longer there today.

[Larzker]

This stuff is great. I usually just save the pictures but now I'm saving the whole page so I can refer to what's written later.

[stuntmovie]

You really like this "house stuff" too?

In that case let me add one more picture of two Venice Beach houses that went up in 1905 - the year before the big San Francisco earthquake. The tenants living there now had no idea what the original price of these homes was but I'll take a wild guess and say anywhere between $800 to $1,200.

This last house photo is the Gingerbread House which was built for Charlie Chaplain so he could have Hollywood parties on the beach.

I originally took photos of all these places in the hopes that someone could identify the original "Muscle House" that was managed by Pudgy Stockton. I understand that Reeves and many of the original old time greats stayed there for short periods of time.

Anyone got those details?

End of building photos.... Unless someone wants to see the million dollar plus new places that are just south of the Venice Pit.

[onlyme]

Here is a link to the Casa Del Mar.  The place is really nice.  I don't have any memories of it personally but I do remember the name cause my uncle owned quite a few homes down in that area and back when I was probably around 8 or 10 years old and I remember us going down there and my uncle telling us about it.  He was into fitness back then.

http://www.hotelcasadelmar.com/

[Joe Roark]

Kevin,
I believe the lady who ran the Muscle House By The Sea was Joy Crettaz, not Pudgy Stockton.
Joy wrote a letter to Muscle Builder in July 1965 p 5, and she and Weider had been corresponding.
She mentioned Reeves was with her (at the House) in 1948 and 1949.

[stuntmovie]

Thanks for that link, Only! It's amazing how things do change but always remain the same!

Joe, Could it be possible that Joy Crettaz was Pudgy's maiden name?  To be honest with ya, this is the first time I've ever heard of Joy and I've always associated Pudgy with Muscle House although I never could get the full details on that place.

I do recall seeing an old photo of Steve Reeves and some of the other old timers sitting around a breakfast table and Pudgy was in that shot.

I could be wrong though and do hope to hear from others on this subject.

The last I heard about Pudgy was a long time ago and I understand that she had a health food store in the San Diego area.

Last month when I visited "Dean's Muscle In" I noticed her photo on the wall. She was top lady on the totem pole.

[Joe Roark]

Kevin,
No, Pudgy's maiden name was Eville. So far as I know she had nothing to do with managing the House. I have had extensive talks with her and with Les, her husband. so I sure certain about this (famous last words).
Of course, Les is gone now.

[stuntmovie]

Joe, THANKS! This is something completely new to me (and I thought I knew it all but that is one of the reasons for posting this stuff).

Can I ask you this then?? ..................... Just what was Pudgy's connection with the bodybuilding world then?? Without her association with "Muscle House" I only have her standing on someone's shoulders as the third person in a totem pole.

Whenever I ever thought of Pudgy, it was always in connection with Reeves and all those other old time "originators". But now your broke that memory bubble!

[Richard2004]

Kevin,
I believe the lady who ran the Muscle House By The Sea was Joy Crettaz, not Pudgy Stockton.
Joy wrote a letter to Muscle Builder in July 1965 p 5, and she and Weider had been corresponding.
She mentioned Reeves was with her (at the House) in 1948 and 1949.

Joe, wasn't the "Muscle House By The Sea"  run (at least for a time) by Mae West? 

Among the BB'ers who were part of Mae West's Las Vegas show/troupe of BB'ers, in the early-mid 1950's, were George Eifermann, Mickey Hargity (before his involvement with Jayne Mansfield) and Chuck Krauser.  As I recall, Chuck Krauser "punched-out" Mickey over some disagreement. 

George Eifermann later toured the public schools in the country and came by my HS in Nashville, TN.  He put on a demo. at my school where he spoke, posed, demonstrated his flexibility, and played his trumpet while simultaneously one-arm pressing a barbell overhead.  He looked fabulous and this was back in the time when all the HS coaches tried to tell us that lifting weights would make you "musclebound"!

For a young, skinny, impressionable, teenager just beginning to weight-train, George was a tremendous inspiration to me and convinced me that my coaches were full of sh*t when it came to knowledge about weight-training!

By the way, one woman of that era (the 1950's/1960's) who was a true pioneer of strongwomen was the great (and all but now forgotten) Joan Rhodes.  If you can ever see/get-ahold-of  a movie called "Ecco", made in the mid-1960's, there was a segment in the movie showing Joan's strongwoman/nightclub act in London where she sang, danced, and did various strength feats like bending iron bars, etc.  She had a gorgeous figure and really combined feminine beauty, sex appeal. and physical strength! 

[Joe Roark]

I checked my files. Fleurette 'Joy' Crettaz was the hostess at the House. See Muscle Power October 1950 page 47 for confirmation.

[619Rules]

Kevin,
No, Pudgy's maiden name was Eville. So far as I know she had nothing to do with managing the House. I have had extensive talks with her and with Les, her husband. so I sure certain about this (famous last words).
Of course, Les is gone now.

I too am curious as to what Pudgy Stocketon is up to these days, like where does she live. She must be retired at this date.

Case Del Mar, did not know it was next to Shutters Santa Monica-one of the most, if not thee most, expensive hotels on the west coast. High end place, but now I know where Casa Del Mar is.

The house that is left next to Muscle Beach is awesome, thanks Kevin/Stuntmovie for the post.

The lots on Venice Beach sold for, as I recall from the history book, about 500-1000 dollars each-house extra. Venice back then, like most So Cal beaches back in the early days (Mission Beach, Coronado and so forth), was really just a big amusement park. The boardwalk was lined with booths offering the various games and shows. The interesting part of Venice Beach is that (it is named after Venice Italy of course) it was orginally named Venice of America. They built like 10 or 12 canals going around the area that used pumps to get the water in and out. Eventually though almost all of the canals were filled in. I think there are only 2 canals left in Venice-but don't know for sure.

All I can say is I wish I owned that beach front home.

[stuntmovie]

It would cost ya a few millions smack-o-las now, Rules.

I believe Pax Beale and his beautiful wife have a house in this vicinity just south of the Venice Pit ........... Not sure it's one of these new ones though.

HEY! Remind me to write about Zuver's Gym in Costa Mesa. Does anyone have photos of that incredible place? I trained there in the early 60's and was always greeted by the gorilla at the door.

[Tamas]

Kevin,

HEY! Remind me to write about Zuver's Gym in Costa Mesa. Does anyone have photos of that incredible place? I trained there in the early 60's and was always greeted by the gorilla at the door.

Here's your reminder of Zuver's gym along with some photos, thanks to Jeff Preston's scanning:

Artie Zeller being given the key by the owner:



Some guys are trying to get in without the key:



Tamas.

[Tamas]

We had a few threads going about Zuver's Gym on Ironage with all those pics and more:

Once Upon A Time.....There Was Zuver's Gym!

There's also an article by Dave Draper on his site:

The Weider - Zuver's Gyms

And of course here's Mike squatting the 2000lbs dumbbell:




The inside:






Tamas.

[onlyme]

WOW! That is the most awesome pulldown I have ever seen.  The first gym I ever trained at was called Doc's in Hawthorne.  It was built in the backyard at his house by him and some of th local dad's.  It was built in 1960.  It had a boxing ring too.  he used allot of bycycle rims for pulleys.  He was a All-american shot putter way back.  We had allot of old gears for weights. 

Paul "super-strongman' Anderson lived in Hawthorne for awhile and he trained there for a year or two I heard.  A black bald lady boxer named 'The Tiger" trained there too. 

It was definitely a "get-down" gym.  There was also a neat poster of Arnold.  It had his measurements on it.  It also had other info that you could use to see what your measurements would have to be at your height and weight to be in proportion to Arnold.

That was the first gym I ever trained at.  Started back in 1974.  I was still in business till 1994 when Doc died.  Membership was always $20 a month.